


What It Means To Be

by aewgliriel



Series: Live Our Lives Out Loud [6]
Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: F/M, Family, Humor, K-2SO is baffled by children, K-2SO the babysitter, M/M, human cyborg relations
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-07
Updated: 2018-01-07
Packaged: 2019-03-01 20:30:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13302612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aewgliriel/pseuds/aewgliriel
Summary: K-2SO is revived after Scarif and finds many things have changed. For instance, what is this small thing that looks like Cassian and why does it insist on climbing on him?





	What It Means To Be

**Author's Note:**

> Working in Kaytoo meeting Auren didn’t happen in the main doc for various reasons. This was born of it. The first chapter takes place between chapters 8 and 9 of “If I Fall Along The Way”.

The droid stood in his human’s quarters, silently assessing his surroundings, as he waited for Cassian to return with the food he’d gone to fetch for himself and his family. Kaytoo had carried Cassian’s weapons to the new ship, one he admitted he rather liked, and now he waited.

He still wasn’t sure what to make of the news that Cassian and Jyn Erso had a child, that they were getting married and that Cassian was actually leaving the Rebellion. He had not been here for so much, and these changes were enough to make his processor stutter if he thought too long on it. He didn’t have the relevant data to quantify and qualify and it bothered him.

His photoreceptors scanned the quarters. Nearly everything had been packed up and transported to the ship, save for a few things Cassian said he still needed, and a bag that Kay identified as Jyn’s. The top was open and he spied what looked like her jacket, and some pink fabric.

Jyn was not, he could decisively say, the type to wear pink. Auren Ezri Andor, five years and approximately six months of age, was a human female. It was likely that it belonged to the child.

Kay had virtually no experience with children of any sort. He knew that they tended to be smaller versions of adults, so he extrapolated an image of a miniature Jyn Erso. This didn’t really please him, because while he was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt for Cassian’s sake, he still didn’t have a frame of reference for the “change of heart” Cassian claimed that Kay had had towards the diminutive female.

The cabin door opened and Cassian entered, carrying a tray of food. Jyn followed, holding the hand of a small being that skipped beside her and spoke in a high, excited voice.

“-an’ Sev tried to grab my skirt, but I kicked him and he cried, Mama! Teacher said not to and got mad, but you told me not to let people touch me, so I hit him.”

“You did exactly right, poppet. And you won’t have to deal with Sev again after today, alright?”

The child came around the side of her mother, took one look at Kaytoo, and screamed bloody murder before wrenching her hand out of Jyn’s and diving to hide on the far side of the larger bed.

Cassian set the food tray on the table with a thunk and immediately went to console the girl. Kay watched impassively as Cassian knelt on the floor, wrapping his arms around the child.

“It’s alright, _nena_ ,” he soothed, in a tone Kaytoo could honestly say he’d never heard from the officer before. “Kaytoo is a friend, remember? He won’t hurt you. I know he’s big and scary, but he’ll protect you.”

That was a bit presumptuous, Kay thought, but a nanosecond later decided Cassian was right. There was no logic in hurting the child, and if she was Cassian’s, of course he would go out of his way to protect her.

Cassian coaxed the child out from hiding and brought her over to where Kay stood. The droid stayed still, having decided that it would make him the least threatening. Laughable, really, considering he was over two metres tall and designed to be intimidating, but there it was.

He had expected a miniature Jyn Erso, but the couple’s offspring favoured her father. Kay didn’t know much about human genetics, truthfully, but made a note to learn. She had Cassian’s brown eyes and dark curls that didn’t seem to match either parent. A genetic mutation or something else? Surely Jyn did not style the child’s hair like that every morning. The human woman barely seemed capable of brushing her own hair.

The girl hugged close to Cassian’s leg, looking up with those big, dark eyes full of trepidation.

“Kay,” Cassian said, and his voice was full of another thing the droid was unfamiliar with, coming from Cassian: joy. “This is my daughter, _our_ daughter, Auren. _Pequeña_ , meet K-2SO, who has been my best friend for a long time.”

Best friend. Kay liked that.

Auren blinked at him in silence, then said, in a very small voice, “You’re tall.”

She was several centimetres under a metre herself. He didn’t know if that was normal for a child her age. He resolved to learn as much as he could about children, to best help Cassian.

“I would imagine that, from your perspective, everything is tall,” he observed.

By the door, Jyn snorted a laugh. Cassian, too, was smiling. Kay didn’t understand exactly why they were amused. It was the truth, wasn’t it? The girl was short.

Slowly, Auren stepped away from her father and took a tentative step towards the huge droid. She reached out a very small hand and touched his leg. “Papa says you’re a friend,” she told him. “Mama calls you Target Practise.”

Kaytoo looked back to Jyn, who just shrugged her shoulders and gave him a smirk. To Auren, he said, “Others do tend to enjoy shooting at me. I would like a blaster but I’m not allowed one.”

“Mama wouldn’t let me take a blaster to show’n tell.”

“You are very small and lack the coordination and dexterity required. That was a wise decision on her part.”

Auren scowled up at him, looking so much like her father in that moment that Kay knew he had no choice. She was clearly part of Cassian, and that made her Kaytoo’s as well.

Cassian grinned and scooped her up to sit at his hip for a moment, so the height difference between girl and droid wasn’t so great. “You can commiserate on your lack of blasters later, _nena_. Now it’s time for lunch.”

Jyn moved past him to place the packed bag on the chair, and Kay saw that it was still there to act as a booster seat for the girl. Jyn reached over and patted the droid’s arm.

“Don’t worry, Kaytoo,” she said. “I know it’s a big change, but I’m sure you’re up to the challenge.”

“The challenge of what, precisely?”

The way she just grinned at him was most infuriating.

“I,” he said, “have a bad feeling about this.”

Jyn and Cassian exchanged looks he couldn’t interpret. Cassian cleared his throat and said, “Well, let’s eat, huh? And when you get back to crèche, you can tell this Sev all about Kaytoo.”

“Perhaps I should accompany her if she is being assaulted,” Kay offered.

Cassian arched a brow at him. “Are you sure?”

Jyn said, “Oh, I would pay to see this.”

“I find your facial expression unsettling, Jyn Erso. What’s so funny? Cassian?”

 


End file.
